The March primary is still about three months away but a filing deadline that came Friday provided some closure about who will be running for the four City Council seats up for election next year.
All four of Long Beach’s even-numbered council districts are up for a vote in 2024 and all but one of them have an incumbent running. As of Friday, a total of 11 people had submitted the required paperwork and signatures to qualify for the ballot. Each candidate also filed a brief statement introducing themselves, which can be found here.
Three current City Council members are seeking reelection with Councilmembers Cindy Allen (2nd District), Daryl Supernaw (4th District) and Suely Saro (6th District) all qualified for the ballot. Councilmember Al Austin is serving his final term allowed under city rules and his North Long Beach seat is being sought by two candidates, including Tunua Thrash-Ntuk, whom Austin beat in the November 2020 general election.
While there are a lot of newcomers qualified for the March ballot, the 4th District has several familiar faces in the race for Supernaw’s seat. Current Long Beach Community College District Trustee Herlinda Chico is in the race and so is former 5th District Councilmember Gerrie Schipske, who is eligible to run for this seat due to the changes that were made to city maps during redistricting in 2021.
After finishing her City Council term in 2014, Schipske has run for a number of offices, with her last effort coming in the 2022 City Attorney’s race, where she placed second with 44% of the vote.
Chico previously ran for the 4th District seat in 2015 when a special election was called to fill the vacant seat after then-Councilmember Patrick O’Donnell won a seat in the California Assembly. Supernaw defeated Chico with nearly 52% of the vote in 2015 and has run unopposed in two elections since. If Supernaw wins, he would serve his third and final term allowed under the municipal code.
Long Beach voters will also be asked to decide two Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education seats in Central and West Long Beach as well as Southeast Long Beach.
The primary election will be March 5. In any given race, if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two candidates will continue to a runoff on Nov. 5.
Voter turnout is expected to be high because the 2024 city election will happen alongside the national election for President. In 2020, the first year that Long Beach’s elections were held on the same ballot as the president, over 40% of registered voters cast a ballot in the March primary and nearly 75% voted in the November general election.
By contrast, the election that decided five council seats, the mayor’s seat and other citywide offices in 2022 saw just over 29% of registered voters cast a ballot in the primary and just over 43% of registered voters participate in the general election.
For a full list of the candidates running for office, you can visit the City Clerk’s website here. The site includes statements from each candidate briefly outlining the platforms they’re running on.